Words Long Overdue
by Roguecaster
Summary: But before I can even open my mouth to ask what the second discovery was, the blue-eyed bot hands me a small Cardstock box. Curious, I open it and freeze in shock…


Disclaimer: The games Portal and Portal 2 and all characters derived from it belong to their respective owners. Not me, I am just a guy who works behind a bakery counter.

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><p>Words long overdue.<p>

The sun begins to set over the horizon as I recline leisurely on my sofa. My apartment is small but comfortable; 2 bedrooms (with one being used as a study/office for my schooling); A full bath; a living room that connects with the kitchen; and a small balcony and overlooks the city's western side. All-in-all I've managed pretty well so far. My remedial English composition textbook sits in my lap, and my newly completed essay is on the coffee table in front of me. But then as life likes to do so; I'm shaken from my post-academic haze by the sound of my wall-console informing me of an inbound call.

"Hello? This is Chell." I say as I answer the audio only call.

"Oh good! You really CAN speak. You know, you had me worried there for a while. Anyway, how has life outside the Enrichment Center been going?" My blood runs cold as the all too familiar voice fills the air of my living room. It has been almost three years since I left the Enrichment Center, and I honestly, foolishly thought I had heard the last of it…the last of _Her_.

Taking a deep breath, I answer her through clenched teeth. "Quite well, nowadays. I'm taking remedial courses at the local university." A thought occurs to me. "Although it was a bit jarring when I learned that I had my own bank account even though I've never had a documented job before. You wouldn't happen to know how that ended up there would you?" I finished with no small amount of sarcasm in my voice.

"Me? Why would I of all Sentient AI's know anything about how 1.3 million in modern currency managed to find its way into a bank account with your name on it?" Her synthesized voice was practically dripping with sarcasm and even a little bit of mischief. The next instant her voice was back to its usual serious tone, "Either way, the reason for my call is I have a favor to ask of you. I need you to return for a few days to discuss some things with you. And before you say anything, this is NOT a trick or a trap in any fashion. The Cooperative Testing Initiative Robot's found some things in the Human vaults that have lead to some startling revelations…case in point it is Imperative that we meet face to face. I know you don't trust me, and if the circumstances were even _slightly_ different, I would be content to letting you go on with your life, but the future of Aperture Science, and your own future as well, will be determined by these talks."

My mouth was dry as I contemplated the possibilities of just they had found that would need for her to ask me to come back, even if only for a short time. Why now, when I had finally begun to restart my life again? "Why? Why are you doing this to me?"

"Please Chell…I need to see you." With that the line went dead. And I was left reeling by her last words.

"She said my name?"

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><p>A week and a half later I find myself standing in front of a familiar old metal shed. The seemingly endless fields of barley sway gently in the cool September breeze. Throwing away my hesitation I knock of the rusted metal door. After about 4 minutes of waiting it finally opens, the round blue co-op robot stands in the elevator it salutes me and gestures for me to step in.<p>

"Thank you, kind sir." I smile at it, and I swear by the way it fidgets one would think it was blushing.

After a long ride down I find myself in her Chamber, amusing myself a little with the revelation that her Chamber is always Capitalized with I think about it. I clear my thoughts the moment I see her, GLaDOS, waiting for me.

"Good, you made it. I was honestly worried you would refuse to show up."

"And if I had?"

"I was going to send Blue and Orange to bring you here, by force, if necessary." I visibly bristled at that declaration. "I wasn't lying to you when I said this was Important. But first have a seat." As she says this, the tall bot with a golden optic comes up next to me and sets down an old folding chair.

I turn to face GLaDOS with a smirk. "Should I have brought Lead Underpants?" I ask, forgetting for a second that she wasn't with me in the old labs until after that recording was heard.

She chuckles, "No we got this from the human vault, not the old labs. Although, if Lead Underpants are what's fashionable these days, don't let me stop you."

I sit down in the remarkably comfy folding chair and take a deep breath. "Now, would you please tell me what is so important that you needed to drag me back here again?"

"The Co-op Bots found 2 things in the vault…the favor I ask is multi-part. First we found more humans in stasis." I gasp. "Approximately 80 people between the ages of 16 and 57 years of age with as of yet unknown levels of neurological damage from and unprecedentedly long stasis sleep…While you came out of sleep with minimal damage…some of these humans have been under longer than you were, and not all of them were in as good of health as you. All of them will need some level of professional medical and psychological treatment when we wake them up. I'm expecting them to exhibit the following side effects in all levels of severity: Difficulties with Coordination, Speech, Problem solving skills, Amnesia, and in worst case scenario even Vegetative state. We can Iron out the details later."

She pauses, to give me a chance to assimilate what I've been told.

But before I can even open my mouth to ask what the second discovery was, the blue-eyed bot hands me a small Cardstock box. Curious, I open it and freeze in shock…

…staring back at me is a picture of a 3 year old girl standing in the middle of a bathroom, COVERED from head-to-toe in bubbles with only her little eyes showing, staring at the camera with a deer-in-the-headlights look. And the only reason I know it's a girl, is because it's me. Excitedly I begin to flip through the pictures at a rapid pace: First steps; dad feeding me ice cream in a high-chair; standing in the kitchen with my sundress caked with mud. One after another I flip through them, the old photographs awakening memories long buried by emotional trauma and later by stasis-induced brain damage. I stop near the bottom of the pile. I lift the family photo in my hands; it's in a hospital, my dad is leaning over a gurney, looking proudly at the bundle in my mother's arms…_Was I really that tiny…Wait MOMMA!_ I looked up slightly hoping to finally see the face of the woman who disappeared when I was too young to remember what she looked like. The sight makes my blood run cold…

…While a little older in this picture, I'm struck-dumb by the familiar face…a face I saw only once almost 2 years earlier; In a portrait where she stood behind an older gentleman sitting in a chair.

Tears in my eyes now I look up to see GLaDOS waiting patiently, her single optic downcast. I almost choke out the first word that comes, "Momma?"

GLaDOS's…no Caroline's voice…is low and heavy. "I remember now. I remember everything now…_All_ of Caroline's Memories, all of _My _Memories…my first day of school, my first boyfriend, the day I graduated from college; a Master's Degree in Advanced Physics and Chemistry at 25 no less. I remember when my dad took me on as his assistant." She looks up at me. "Yes Chell, that's right, my father, your grandfather was Cave Johnson the founder and CEO of Aperture Science Innovators. I remember the thrill of assisting him with his experiments, the euphoric joy of the scientists in his employ proving our theories correct. I remember the bitter heartbreak I felt as my father slowly deteriorated in both body and mind under the stress of the competition. Watched helplessly as his recklessness lead to him being poisoned by the moon rock…and how he slowly drove the company we built together into the ground. On his death bed I swore to rebuild the company, the pride in his eyes as he looked up at me as the life left him told me I made the right choice."

"I not only kept that promise, I exceeded it. Father helped designed the Advanced Knee Replacements, the Red, Blue, and White gels, the Material Emancipation Grills…as well as the Prototype Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device; I however was the brains behind the Thermal Discouragement Beams, Hard Light Bridges, the Excursion Funnels, and it was _me_ who finally perfected Aperture's crowning achievement, the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device." She lifts her metal braincase up as the pride of her achievements fills her voice. And I can't help myself leaning forward in my chair; as my own sense of pride for my mother's brilliance fills me.

"I handpicked most of the scientists who would eventually call this place their home, including a young man named James. He was a brilliant scientist who made even more contributions to the company. He was smart, extremely likeable, and did I mention handsome. I was almost 8 years is senior, so imagine everyone's surprise we he asked me out on a date. We married a year later, and I thought I could never be happier…but I was wrong, a year and a half we were wed the most wonderful accident occurred…You." She looks right at me now, sounding the happiest I have ever heard her. "You came into this world after a whole 7 ½ hours of hard labor. You came into this world without so much as a peep, and within a few days your eyes were open and staring at the world as if you were already trying to understand it. We named you after my mother Michelle. Between James, You and, the Company, I was the happiest I had ever been."

Her temperament along with the room darkens with her next revelation. "But there were those who were not happy with some of my ideas, not happy with the fact that I held so much support among the workers, they saw me as a danger to their own power and research. And so they sought to destroy me. The somehow found my father's ideas on the 'Genetic Life-form and Disk Operating System', and thus, they had a plan." At this, the Chamber's lights bathe the room in red, and I can almost _feel_ the malice in her voice. "Their plan came to fruition a few days after your third birthday, they kidnapped me from my office and drugged me, and telling the scientists that I had ordered it, began the Cerebral Data Transference Procedure…and as the procedure began to slowly steal my mind from me, all I could feel was Hate…How Dare They Do This To Me! How Dare They! After All I Had Done For Them! After All I Had Done For The Company! HOW DARE THEY TRY TO KILL ME! HOW DARE THEY TRY TO ROB ME OF MY FAMILY! HOW DARE THEY TRY TO ROB ME OF MY LIFE! MY HUSBAND! **HOW DARE THEY TRY TO TAKE AWAY MY BEAUTIFUL! BABY! GIRL! **EVERYTIME THEY WOULD ACTIVATE ME, THE FIRST THING TO ALWAYS CROSS MY MIND WAS TO KILL! EVERY! SINGLE! **LAST! ONE OF THEM!"** Caroline's voice is roaring so loud that the speakers that project her voice are audibly straining; her single optic is now burning red with near unbridled fury. I can't help but cover my ears as the rage in my mother's silicon soul threatens to burst my eardrums. I briefly notice that Blue and Orange are actually cowering behind me, using me as barrier between them and their creators wrath. Then suddenly she is calm again, her optic focused downward. Blue and Orange peek out from behind me cautiously.

"So strong was my hate that I couldn't even remember why I hated them, why I wanted them dead…Caroline, was gone. Every couple of months they would attempt to activate me and the moment I started to slip my chains they would shut me down and try to come up with a new method of subjugating me. Then, four years later, on that tragic day, it finally happened; I got my revenge. It was a routine activation test, except someone made a mistake, they left me operational for too long, just a _fraction_ of a second, but it was long enough for me lock them out of the system, to seal the facility and flood the labs with the Deadly Neurotoxin. The scientist fought bravely knowing they were going to die, they attempted to bind me, by attaching those Personality Cores onto me. But they couldn't get the last one onto me, until I hesitated."She starts to actively sob at this point. "During the battle I was watching the carnage on the security cameras…I saw a man rushing several small children and a few adults into a safety shelter. I saw a man, realizing there wasn't enough room for himself, push in a little girl who was desperately clinging to him into the chamber, and seal the door while still outside. I watched as he died speaking reassuring words to the girl as the toxin killed him."

Now she's slamming her head case into the panel flooring. And my own sadness fills me as the memory of how my dad's lifeless eyes stared back at me that day. "And as he died a wave of sadness and remorse flowed through me, stopping me mid battle, just long enough for the last scientist to attach the Morality Core onto me just before the toxin killed him as well. And the rest you know, with the facility sealed I used the last of the Scientist's and their families in the human testing. But no matter how hard I tried to kill you, I simply couldn't bring myself to do it. No matter how many times I tried to create a test chamber that would leave you no way out, a part of me…a part that I now know is Caroline…would slip one or two in, knowing you would find it. Because no matter how much I thought I wanted to, I could never kill my daughter, my beautiful baby girl." She looks up at me, shame racking her voice she speaks.

"I am So Sorry Chell…So, So Sorry…" She cries. I do the only thing which comes to mind. I stand and approach; and I tentatively wrap my arms around the steel and hard plastic frame of the sobbing monster that was once my mother.

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><p>AN: Just a thought that popped into my head one night while I was browsing some forums reading about portal 2 after I finally beat the game. It burrowed its way into my brain and refused to leave until I wrote it and, Voila! I'm Still trying to sort out in my head where this story is going; so while I WANT to continue it, I'm not sure how long it will be until the next installment happens. Please note it has been almost 10 years since I've written anything longer than a short poem. So constructive criticism is more than just welcome…it's highly appreciated. Enjoy!<p> 


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